


butterfly effect

by Quillium



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27562285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillium/pseuds/Quillium
Summary: Barb regrets it immediately afterwards, but she still thinks it.Maybe this was for the best.She hates herself for it, a bit, because Steve Harrington may have been an asshole and definitely not good enough for her best friend, but he didn’t deserve to die.
Relationships: Barbara "Barb" Holland & Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers & Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	butterfly effect

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! Not sure if this is going to go anywhere, it was just a lil drabble that I wrote for fun. Remember your checklist--have you been gentle with yourself today? Slept 8 hours in a row? Eaten something solid in the past three hours? Stretched? Drank water? If not, get onto that! Take care of yourselves, love you.

When Steve Harrington disappears, Nancy Wheeler is inconsolable.

“What could you have done?” Barb asks, “Stayed the night with him and have the both of you disappear? It’s for the better.”

“He asked me to stay,” Nancy mumbles, “I told him that I had to go with you, and he could be by himself like a big boy.”

Barb presses her hand between Nancy’s shoulder blades, frustrated at being limited to such small comfort. “He would have wanted you to be safe.”

(And Barb regrets it immediately afterwards, but she still thinks it.

 _Maybe this was for the best_.

She hates herself for it, a bit, because Steve Harrington may have been an asshole and definitely not good enough for her best friend, but he didn’t deserve to _die_.)

* * *

Jonathan Byers shows Nancy the pictures he took, of Steve drinking alone by the pool.

She recognizes that bottle in his hand. They found it smashed in the water, faint traces of blood on some shards.

The police think it means Steve put up a struggle.

Jonathan says, quietly, “It wouldn’t have broken like that if he had hit someone with it--even _if_ he was really drunk. I think he smashed it himself, out of anger, _before_ he vanished.”

“What does that mean?” Nancy demands. “How does that help us?”

Jonathan shrugs, helplessly, and seems to curl in on himself. “I don’t know,” he mumbles.

Nancy looks at him, as though she can measure him with his eyes, see everything in one glance, purses her lips together, and says, “Let’s go over the photos again.”

* * *

Steve Harrington’s parents fly in the day before the funeral. 

They arranged it all overseas--Barb suspects they didn’t even do it themselves but got some secretary to do it (and Nancy hushes her but some part of her thinks it might be true and is angry, boiling, furious about it)--because apparently they were too busy to come back for such a long period of time.

Steve’s mother’s face is hidden behind a veil. 

She looks expensive, most comment in disgust--but Karen Wheeler says she looks frail, as though she tried to compose herself but forgot all the proper pieces to being human.

Some people catch the broken pieces of an argument.

“We should have forced him to come with us--”

“What would it have done? Didn’t we build a house for him? Didn’t we let him stay with his friends like he wanted? What, should we have dragged him, kicking and screaming, to the airport?”

“He was all alone--”

“How could we have known? Next you’re going to say we should have stayed.”

“Of course not, we couldn’t have afforded that.”

“We couldn’t have afforded a kid with us while we travelled, either.”

And it sounds so distant, cold, but they’re both crying, and if you ask Karen Wheeler, she’ll say they’re trying to comfort themselves, saying there’s nothing they could have done.

That’s the kind of people the Harringtons were. Proud and above it all, except it was only them trying to hide how human they are.

* * *

“It was an accident, or intentional,” Barb says, desperately, holding onto Nancy’s hands. “But it wasn’t some--some supernatural monster, Nance. It couldn’t have been. Please...”

“It was,” Nancy answers, fire and brimstone and certainty.

(Barb has always loved that part of Nancy. But now she’s scared--scared that Nancy’s grief and denial is driving her insane, that Nancy will get caught up in something stupid or dangerous and scared that Nancy won’t be able to accept the truth--)

And Barb can’t convince Nancy to stop doing anything. Hasn’t been able to since they first met as kids, Barb shy and quiet and Nancy bold and loud.

But Barb can look out for her best friend. She tried telling Nancy that her actions were wrong in the past--and now Nancy’s in denial over her boyfriend’s death with Barb not even knowing how to react.

She won’t tell Nancy what to do anymore. She’ll do her best to help--and show Nancy the truth.

“Then let me work with you two. And however Steve disappeared--we’ll investigate together.”

Nancy smiles, and Barb thinks _this is stupid and crazy_ but she can’t regret it.

* * *

“Will’s body was fake,” Jonathan says quietly.

“Why would it be fake?” Barb demands. 

“Someone’s covering something up,” Nancy says. She narrows her eyes. “You think this could be connected to Steve’s disappearance?”

“Why would it be? The two of them don’t seem to have any connections.”

Barb bites her lips and looks at Nancy. “Does your brother and his friends know that the body’s a fake?”

Nancy makes eye contact. “You think they should know? Aren’t you always going on about how you need to accept the truth to deal with your grief properly?”

“This is the truth, isn’t it? That the body’s fake.”

Nancy purses her lips together. “They’re just kids. We can’t get them involved.”

“Nance, if your brother is anything like you, he’s involved. He’s just hiding it, like you are.”

“They’re _kids_ ,” Jonathan says quietly.

“So are we,” Barb mumbles.

Stricken, Nancy and Jonathan make eye contact. It’s a sibling thing, Barb knows--as an only child, her mindset is different from theirs. They want to protect their little brothers, so much so that they’re sometimes blind to their growth.

“It’s a conspiracy,” Nancy says. “Someone with enough power to make a fake body is involved. Kids can’t do anything against that.”

“I’m not saying they need to be fully involved. Just... work with them a little. Enough so that if they get into something too dangerous, you’re in a position to safely pull them out.”

Jonathan chews on his lower lip. And then, he says, “I thought mom was losing it. But now I’m thinking... maybe she’s onto something.”

“You want to work with her, too.”

“Yeah.”

“Alright,” Nancy, their de facto leader, nods and grins sharply, “Let’s do this.”


End file.
